“I BEAR about in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus.” It is not up there. If I look up to the glory I get it. I say I have Him now. But you say it does not come out. What is the reason? The flesh is the difficulty, and the glory won’t do to set aside the flesh. You must bring in Christ’s death. You must mortify it “always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus.” He gives us the cross to open the way to the glory. I must use the cross to be the expression of Christ on earth. I can tell you what prevents the expression of Christ. The very thing that gratifies you most, that is the thing that hinders.
Mark the latter part of the verse― “that the life also of Jesus,” (not the Lord Jesus) “may be manifested in our body” ― In our body. The life is there, but I want it to be seen outside. I say to a coachman on a dark night, Have you got your lamps? Yes, he says. Are the candles good? Oh, yes, the best that can be got. Well, what is the state of the glasses? Oh, I quite forgot to clean them. Then, I say, your lamps are not worth a farthing. The light is there, but no one will see it because the glasses are dirty. The light is there, but it has to come through the glasses, and cannot because of the dirt.
I use a word well known to some of you, though perhaps not to all—the reason why the light does not come out is, that your body is “opaque.” I was speaking on this subject the other day in the country, and a countryman said, when we want a light, we take a large turnip, and scrape it till it is so thin that the light can shine through it. That is just what you want: ―No “flesh” in your body, and then your body will let out the light. “Always bearing about in the body, the dying of Jesus.”
You say how am I to know the dark thing hindering. Have you a great taste for music, or for drawing? Yes, you say, I have quite a passion for it. Then, I say, take care, that is black. That will hinder the light. You say, why there is no great harm in it. It is not a question of harm. It hinders the expression of Christ the light. You do not allow yourself to become an unhindered vehicle of grace. You say, I must do my work. Certainly, work never does harm. It is care and absorption through nature that does harm. Work is the very thing given to man, and he will never do well without it, it is the care that does the mischief. Care is the doubtful issue of your work. It is not work that hinders. That is no excuse. There is nothing so useful for a man as labor. “He brought down their soul with labor.” No man has his health if he is not a laboring man. A working man is a true man, whether it is for the Lord or not. Let no person talk to me, and excuse himself by saying, “I must do my business.” The duties of life are the banks of the river within which you ought to flow on. After mingling in the bustle of a godless world, when I get home, there should be the “ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God, of great price.” What a wonderful thing that is. There is something to teach me what God is. The duties of life are the very banks through which that river shall flow. If the river had not banks, where would it be? I am not answerable for people if they make, what I call canals, ―make ways for themselves. You never saw a canal without a dry dock. That is not God’s way. That is a canal that you make for yourself to ride on.
But as an actual force, what is to hinder me? The hindrance is whatever is self-gratification―that will bar the expression of that which is Christ.
I look at a man like Stephen. He is the expression of Christ. He is under the cross—under death. Flesh gets nothing. There is no self-gratification to hinder him, and then he comes out as a beautiful expression of the divine.